Think Piece: A Full-blooded Apology

A Full-blooded Apology

Instead of a 15 second begrudged, pseudo-grovelling apology at the Despatch Box, a comprehensive and unreserved apology covering the multiple failings of the State in relation to the NHS Contaminated Blood Scandal must include something like the following.
“I, as Prime Minister on behalf of the Government, on behalf of previous Governments, on behalf of my Party, and on behalf of the Nation, do say in all earnestness that I am deeply, deeply …”
1. Sorry for the deaths of over 3,000 people – that we know of at least – who were your husbands, wives, partners, soulmates, children, parents, grandchildren, grandparents, siblings, relatives, and friends
2. Sorry for the sad fact that hundreds have died during the too long delayed Public Inquiry meaning they never got to see the truth come out, or justice being served, or to hear this apology
3. Sorry for the use of people as research subjects, including children, without their or your knowledge or agreement
4. Sorry for the lack of consent or informed consent sought from you and your loved ones through their use as “test subjects” in what amounted to clinical trials
5. Sorry for the names people were called, like “useful material”,  “virgin haemophiliacs”, and “pups” meaning previously untreated patients, when pups was horribly and incongruously thought to be a term of endearment
6. Sorry for minimising the risks of viral infections, particularly after it was known there were serious risks; and especially since they were known much earlier than people wanted to admit
7. Sorry for the delayed disclosure of viral infections, and for those loved ones who were recklessly put at risk, and in too many cases were subsequently infected due to that delayed disclosure
8. Sorry for sticking to the line that without the treatments your life would have been worse, and how this line continued while knowing alternatives were available and risks were certainly life-changing and too often were life-limiting
9. Sorry for the toxic side effects of the mostly experimental and mostly ineffective anti-viral treatments such as Interferon and Ribavirin
10. Sorry for all the additional chronic health conditions, the co-morbidities, the multiple infections which exacerbated the harms and the suffering
11. Sorry for the disclosure of viral infection eventually happening but too often not in a private space or with adequate resources being available, and which involved people being told devastating news in public hospital corridors and busy waiting rooms
12. Sorry for the children who never got to grow up, but who died as innocents
13. Sorry for the babies who were never born because we told you not to have children, and even to abort your babies if they happened to be on the way
14. Sorry for the weddings that didn’t have dad or mum there to give away the bride or groom, or at least see the ceremonies
15. Sorry for the removal of children’s brains and other tissues after death, despite specific demands not to do so
16. Sorry for holding in storage your blood and other bodily materials for years, without your knowledge or consent
17. Sorry for the lack of candour about the sourcing of commercial blood and products derived from paid prisoners and people on “skid row”
18. Sorry for the contrivance of requiring to import commercial blood products which were known to be unsafe, and which were being dumped on the NHS at a cut-price because the US regulator stopped their use at home
19. Sorry for then perpetuating the narrative that imported commercial blood was wholly bad while locally sourced self-sufficient blood was automatically good, because it wasn’t
20. Sorry for continuing to relying on UK blood donations from known high-risk settings such as prisons and military barracks
21. Sorry for the loss of educational, career and personal development opportunities
22. Sorry for the dashing of hopes and dreams of people who thought they had their whole life ahead of them
23. Sorry for the horrendous deaths suffered by people which included acute, unrelenting pain, loss of dignity and sometimes even spending their last few moments dying in agony on their own, not least due to a palliative care system not fit for purpose
24. Sorry for the hospital treatments involving staff dressed in full hazmat suits
25. Sorry for the horrid and ignorant stigma caused, which resulted in bullying, accusations, ostracization, shunning, and loss of respect in the community
26. Sorry for the imposed requirement to cremate rather than bury the dead
27. Sorry for the hardship and chaos caused to families by the years of grinding poverty you had to try and survive through
28. Sorry for the withholding of information by the NHS and other agencies of the State
29. Sorry for the collusion between clinicians, officials, elected members, and business interests
30. Sorry for the cover-up, the use of statutory instruments to stop press reporting, and the deliberate secrecy at all levels
31. Sorry for the constant denials and the contrived delays, which relied on people dying so the truth never came out
32. Sorry for the accusations aimed at campaigners and curious individuals, such as calling them “difficult patients”, and “low-grade guerrillas” who were “just looking for money”,
33. Sorry for the secretive monitoring of campaigners by the State, their personal mail, their telephones, their electronic communications, and their meetings
34. Sorry for the threats to campaigners which sought to frighten them into silence
35. Sorry for the lack of recognition of the losses, impacts, and needs of those “affected people” who lived with and often cared for those infected by the State
36. Sorry for the lack of support to family and other carers who gave up careers, opportunities, and their own health to fill the care gap created by the State
37. Sorry for the denial of justice after multiple and justifiable calls for the truth and accountability to be allowed to come out into the open
38. Sorry for the lack of co-operation with the Archer Independent Inquiry
39. Sorry for the fact that because of all the deliberate delays, so many key witnesses died before the Infected Blood Inquiry was able to obtain evidence from them
40. Sorry for the poor or non-existent leadership from the various health departments, Ministers, and officials who at least should have coordinated efforts to ensure basic safety and minimum standards
41. Sorry for relying on advice from the same medical experts who were using patients as research subjects, advising the charitable interest groups, while being paid by pharmaceutical companies, being lauded for their academic achievements, advising or deciding on product procurement, and even being expert witnesses in negligence cases against their colleagues who were all acting with the same motivations as they themselves, and so could never be independent
42. Sorry for the lack of progress with, and even the mysterious closure of, multiple police investigations
43. Sorry for the emphasis on the value to the military, and thus the secrecy, of discovering methods of treating viruses and stopping bleeding as discovered through using patients as guinea pigs to test potential responses that might be useful in conflict situations
44. Sorry for assuming the welfare benefit system was a reasonable means of replacing lost incomes, because it wasn’t
45. Sorry for the uncaring way the State benefit system demanded people submit to processes which were designed to stop them getting even minimal payments, when it was the self-same State (even the same Department of Health and Social Security) which caused the disabilities and claimants’ unfitness to work in the first place
46. Sorry for the frequent denial of access to Ministers
47. Sorry for the frequent inadequate and incomplete responses to letters, including insufficient responses to Freedom of Information requests
48. Sorry for the inadequate contributions to the Inquiry by some official witnesses, in particular, Lord Kenneth Clarke, whose comments the Government distances itself from
49. Sorry for the slowness in working towards “parity” in support schemes, even after it was part of a call by the Inquiry Chair to better support people during the period of the Inquiry
50. Sorry for the denial of funding to your charities and groups just at the time when their support and advocacy was particularly needed
51. Sorry for the refusal to publish the Sir Robert Francis QC report on the Compensation Framework Study at the time it was delivered to the Cabinet Office
52. Sorry for the way the Inquiry in Scotland was established with poor and skewed advice by officials on the terms of reference, the way the switch to appointing Lord Penrose happened, the manner in which he chose to direct the Inquiry, the lack of a means to intervene during his leadership, and in hindsight, the inadequacy of his use of the evidence he saw which missed so many reasonable conclusions and produced only one recommendation after six years and £12million of public money
53. Sorry for the previous minimal apologies by Governments and Ministers which were inordinately brief, disingenuous, and disrespectful to all those infected and affected by the UK NHS Contaminated Blood Scandal, which is “the worse treatment disaster in the history of the NHS”
54. Sorry for the delay in doing the right thing years ago, so much so that belatedly this Government will commit to agreeing to accept and act on all the Recommendations of the Infected Blood Inquiry, to fully engage with the infected and affected community in making the recommendations happen, to authorise the swift adoption of the Compensation Framework after it is improved according to the Inquiry Final Report, to be a basis for paying both historical damages and on-going support, and to do so immediately with an ambitious timetable for prioritised and transparent action.
“I commend this statement of apology to the House.”

Further:
As with the recent example from Northern Ireland, it would be inadequate to have only the UK Government of the day – currently the Conservative Party – make an apology alone. There should also be formal apologies from at least the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats. These apologies should be followed by an adequate allocation of parliamentary time for a debate and reflection; including a minute’s silence.
Since a considerable period of official unhelpfulness occurred after devolution, there should also be apologies, debates, and silences from Holyrood, the Senedd, and Stormont.

Invitation:
If there is any other specific matter related to the Contaminated Blood Scandal which is not listed in the above Full-blooded Apology as it currently is drafted, further suggestions are welcomed.

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